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'Tis sort of the time of year for e-waste events - in the sense that we're approaching the time of year when people go running into BestBuy like firefighters into burning buildings to pick up a Blu-Ray player or three for presents. (I tend to run the other way out of a mall, especially at the holidays, but I do have seemingly dozens of cousins.)

Over the weekend, the city of Pasadena held an electronic waste event at Brookside Park, next to the Rose Bowl Aquatics Center. Today, L.A. Live's the site of a monster recycling effort. Curbside at Nokia Plaza L.A. LIVE, entering from Figueroa and 11th streets only, they're taking:

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A month and a half ago Heal the Bay's Mark Gold wrote on his Spouting Off blog:

I’ve always been struck by the fact that so much of the local environmental leadership is Jewish (Andy Lipkis, Felicia Marcus, David Nahai, Adi Liberman, Fran Diamond, Madelyn Glickfeld, the late Dorothy Green, Sara Wan, David Beckman, Laurie David, and so many more). Clearly, the importance of social action in the community means a lot more than Tikkun Olam and Tu Bishvat.

He had a religious experience at temple, of all places:

Joel asked simply: “How can we claim that our righteousness flow like a mighty stream when our streams have been flowing to create destruction or our streams have dried up?”Because my life has been water for many years, the rabbi’s words resonated with me strongly. His powerful use of the water analogy and connecting to the impacts of climate change on water were extraordinary.

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What is Los Angeles’ green future? “In a way, because Los Angeles is so complex, so diverse, so big — that if you can get a sustainability process underway, if you can make Los Angeles sustainable, then you can do it anywhere," says Futurist Jamais Cascio, before warnng “The worst case scenario for Los Angeles is….” Watch the 15-minute video below to find out what that sad scenario may be.

Wish the Metro Rapid 720 bus moved down Wilshire Blvd. more rapidly? Metro’s The Source blog announces Metro staff’s new recommendations for rush hour bus-only lanes on Wilshire, running the 8.7 miles between Centinela and South Park view between 7 am to 9 am and 4 pm to 7 pm on weekdays.

Brazilian Blowout gets sued for formaldehyde content by Calif. Attorney General. The company’s popular hair-straightening treatments are now under attack, after numerous salon workers complained about health problems. No More Dirty Looks blog has a copy of a formal complaint, which alleges that “high levels of formaldehyde” are found in the company’s products, which are marketed as containing no formaldehyde or harsh chemicals.”

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A challenging part of having the highest profile, most politicized utility in the state is that more people make decisions together - and so it goes with solar incentives. The city council vote was 11 in favor of reviewing the scheduled step-down in incentives. LAT's David Zahniser blogs:

Councilman Paul Koretz agreed that the DWP's solar program, which currently has 1,500 applications, has been a "victim of its own success." But he said he had received dozens of calls from residents, business owners and environmentalists who warned that the reductions, which are slated to go into effect Jan. 1, are too much too soon.

"From everything we've been hearing from the environmental community, this would pretty much gut the program," said Koretz, who represents a district that takes in much of the Westside.

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Have no money and nothing to do this fine Saturday? The first LA Free Store will pop up today, Sat. Nov. 13 in Eagle Rock. Stop by outside the Casa Princessa Cafe between 10 am and 2 pm today “to get some goods, services, and smiles,” says LAist. Take your no longer used stuff with you so fellow Angelenos have a chance to give the goods some reuse.

The genetically-modified salmon debate heats up. As the FDA considers approving GE salmon for human consumption, the Center for Food Safety says the FDA “knowingly withheld a Federal Biological Opinion by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) prohibiting the use of transgenic salmon in open-water net pens pursuant to the U.S. Endangered Species Act.” Grist reports on the debate in a less jargon-y, more lay-reader-friendly summary post.

Lastly and cattily: Cats drink very efficiently, says an MIT engineer. Reports LA Times: “Unlike dogs — who use their tongues like ladles, scooping water into their mouths in a characteristically straightforward manner — cats apply an instinctive understanding of fluid mechanics to take the biggest sips.”

About the blog: Pacific Swell

KPCC's Molly Peterson on a Gilligan's Island style tour of environmental stories in and affecting Southern California. Named for the Yvor Winters poem: "The slow Pacific swell stirs on the sand/Sleeping to sink away, withdrawing land..."
Follow the blog at @PacificSwell and Molly at @KPCCmolly.